Final Census Data for May foreign steel imports was released by the U.S. Department of Commerce (US DOC) earlier today. Imports for May were 107,000 net tons lower than the month of April. The May 2015 number is 600,000 net tons lower than the 4,033,351 net tons received during the month of May 2014. June […]
For the week ending July 4, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,684,000 net tons of raw steel, a 2.8 percent decrease over the previous week and a 11.4 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 71.2 percent, down […]
Lisa Reisman, Founder and Executive Editor for Metal Miner, published their July basic metals forecast which includes zinc, aluminum, copper, lead, tin, etc. The July forecast is available to the public. Just click here to go to the Metal Miner site where you can download their full report. This is the last free report so […]
The silence you hear is, we guess, the market on vacation… There was very little movement in flat rolled steel prices and lead times this week. We have price announcements, a coated trade case, union negotiations and now new trade language and the market is just absorbing it and continuing on as though everything is […]
On Monday, President Obama signed into law the bill that contains the “Level the Playing Field” act. This is the bill that made some potentially significant changes to trade laws, including changing the criteria for “material injury” findings and increasing penalties for foreign respondents that do not provide information requested by the Commerce Department. This […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce updated the June license data late this afternoon. Based on the latest results the total foreign steel import trend appears will be below 3.0 million net tons. Last week the trend was suggesting imports of 3.0-3.2 million net tons and the week before that the trend was 3.2-3.3 million net […]
For the week ending June 27, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,733,000 net tons of raw steel, a 0.4 percent increase over the previous week but a 8.3 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 73.3 percent, up […]
A little more than a week ago, Steel Market Update spoke at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch dinner in Chicago. In the audience were a couple of scrap companies who told us the mills in the Chicago area (ArcelorMittal in particular) have come back into the market to buy scrap after a lengthy absence […]
Benchmark hot rolled prices remain stuck at $465(ish) according to the four flat rolled steel indexes followed by Steel Market Update. Platts rose $3 last week and reported $465 per ton HRC as did Steel Market Update, which was unchanged from the prior week. CRU was down $3 per ton to $460 per ton and […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets: On the S&P 500 we are […]
One of the key items Steel Market Update watches is the spread between world hot rolled export pricing and the HRC spot price average here in the United States. This spread is important to the domestic steel mills and their customers because as the spread narrows domestic steel becomes more competitive and their order books […]
Total steel imports, based on the just released Preliminary Census Data out of the US Department of Commerce, slide lower for the 4th month in a row. May imports are now being referenced as being 3,374,427 net tons (3.065 million metric tons) and we expect Final Census numbers to be very close to this 3.374 […]
When asked to report on how steel mill pricing was this past week, one coating mill told Steel Market Update, “Really nothing. It wasn’t up, nor down in my opinion. We are booking steadily. But people still have inventory so nobody is desperate or in a bind. Good lead time but not enough panic to […]
The U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) released the latest foreign steel import license data through the 23rd of June. Based on the latest data, the trend is for steel imports to continue to slide towards the magical 3.0 million net tons mark. Last week the data was suggesting imports would be about 3.2-3.3 million net […]
This piece, written by Peter Wright, combines our own data analysis with recently published opinions about the iron ore, metallurgical coal and zinc markets that we find credible. Iron Ore: The Platts IODEX of 62 percent Fe delivered North China recovered to $61.25 on March 22nd, continued its upward trend in June then on June […]
For the week ending June 20, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,726,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.2 percent decrease over the previous week and a 8.6 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 73.0 percent, down […]
Hot rolled coil prices appear to be stuck in the $462 to $465 range. We have seen very little movement on HRC since the move made after the first price increase announcement back on April 28th. Cold rolled, which SMU saw as being up $10 this past week, went nowhere according to Platts and CRU […]
Attorney Larry Friedman noted the “hockey stick” graphs when looking at the five countries listed as defendants in the coated steel antidumping petition. We wanted to take a new look at the five countries and the total galvanized and Galvalume shipments made during 2012, 2013 and 2014 and how 2013 and 2014 compared with the […]
Steel Market Update is pleased to introduce a new contributing writer on the HRC Futures and other futures markets. Spencer Johnson is a Risk Management Consultant with FCStone LLC. With six years of experience, Spencer provides his customers strategic and tactical advice on protecting themselves against commodity price volatility in the steel markets. Spencer will […]
Coated steels continued to be the strongest products on the heals of AD/CVD suits having been filed on the products along with the new price increase announcements by the domestic mills. We heard from a number of galvanized buyers that the offers out of the steel mills all begin with a three (as in $30.00/cwt […]
We are starting to see signs that the June import numbers could be significantly below those of April and May which were both at 3.5 million net tons. The daily import license rate for June is at 109,662 tons per day and if the actual imports were to come in at that rate the month […]
Metalico, Inc., a U.S. scrap metal processor, has been sold to Chinese investment firm Total Merchant Limited for approximately $105 million. In an announcement on Tuesday, Metalico said it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Total Merchant and expects to close the transaction by August 31, 2015, subject to shareholder approval and customary closing […]
For the week ending June 13, 2015, the American Iron & Steel Institute (AISI) estimated the U.S. steel industry produced 1,747,000 net tons of raw steel, a 1.5 percent increase over the previous week but a 7.5 percent decrease over the same week one year ago. The estimated capacity utilization rate is 73.9 percent, up […]
With the price increase announcements and the filing of a trade case against coated products we saw galvanized and Galvalume prices move higher by double digits this past week. Galvanized increased by $15 per ton according to SMU and $16 per ton according to CRU. Galvalume prices moved higher by $10 per ton. When looking […]
An executive with a large service center group penned us some thoughts about the market (prior to the SSAB plate price increase) on Wednesday of this past week. “I was surprised at the June import-rate figures, with the forecast/possibility of 3+ million tons. It doesn’t seem like imports are falling as fast as expected for […]
Nucor became the first domestic steel mill to announce a second round of flat rolled steel price increases. The Nucor announcement, which was for a $20 per ton price increase, affected hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized products produced by their mills. This is the second price increase on flat rolled products since the end […]
SSAB Americas sent a letter to their customers today advising that they are taking plate prices higher by $25 per ton. Here is the content of the SSAB letter: To Our Valued Customers: Please be advised that effective immediately SSAB Americas is raising the transaction price for all non-contract As-Rolled Mill Plate, Cut-To-Length Plate >72”, […]
The following article on the hot rolled coil (HRC), busheling scrap (BUS), iron ore and financial futures markets was written by Andre Marshall, CEO of Crunch Risk LLC and our Managing Price Risk I & II instructor. Here is how Andre saw trading over the past week: Financial Markets: We continue to be the best […]
Licensed data for May was updated on June 9th through the Steel Import Monitoring System of the US Commerce Department. The SMU publishes several import reports ranging from this very early look using licensed data to the very detailed analysis of final volumes by district of entry and source nation which is available to our […]
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has initiated investigations into alleged dumping and subsidizing of certain hot-rolled carbon steel plate and high-strength low-alloy steel plate originating in or exported from the Republic of India (India) and the Russian Federation (Russia). The investigation follows a complaint filed on April 20, 2015 by Essar Steel Algoma claiming […]